Study Tools

Frankenstein

Mary Shelley

Chapter 24 & Walton, in Continuation

Key Facts

1.

I
saw—with shut eyes, but acute mental vision—I saw the pale student
of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together.
I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on
the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life and stir
with an uneasy, half-vital motion. Frightful must it be, for supremely
frightful would be the effect of any human endeavor to mock the stupendous
mechanism of the Creator of the world.

Taken from Mary Shelley’s Author’s Introduction
to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein, this
quote describes the vision that inspired the novel and the prototypes
for Victor and the monster. Shelley’s image evokes some of the key
themes, such as the utter unnaturalness of the monster (“an uneasy,
half-vital motion”), the relationship between creator and created
(“kneeling beside the thing he had put together”), and the dangerous
consequences of misused knowledge (“supremely frightful would be
the effect of . . . mock[ing] . . . the Creator”).

2.

Did
I request thee, Maker, from my clay
To mould me Man, did I solicit thee
From darkness to promote me?

These lines appear on the title page
of the novel and come from John Milton’s Paradise Lost, when
Adam bemoans his fallen condition (Book X, 743–745).
The monster conceives of himself as a tragic figure, comparing himself
to both Adam and Satan. Like Adam, he is shunned by his creator,
though he strives to be good. These rhetorical questions epitomize
the monster’s ill will toward Victor for abandoning him in a world
relentlessly hostile to him and foist responsibility for his ugliness
and eventual evil upon Victor.

3.

What
may not be expected in a country of eternal light?

This quote comes from Walton’s first
letter to his sister in England. It encapsulates one of the main
themes of Frankenstein—that of light as a symbol
of knowledge and discovery. Walton’s quest to reach the northernmost
part of the earth is similar in spirit to Victor’s quest for the
secret of life: both seek ultimate knowledge, and both sacrifice
the comfort of the realm of known knowledge in their respective
pursuits. Additionally, the beauty and simplicity of the phrasing
epitomize the eighteenth-century scientific rationalists’ optimism
about, and trust in, knowledge as a pure good.

4.

So
much has been done, exclaimed the soul of Frankenstein—more, far
more, will I achieve; treading in the steps already marked, I will
pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world
the deepest mysteries of creation.

Victor utters these words in Chapter 3 as
he relates to Walton how his chemistry professor, M. Waldman, ignited
in him an irrepressible desire to gain knowledge of the secret of
life. Victor’s reference to himself in the third person illustrates
his sense of fatalism—he is driven by his passion, unable to control
it. Further, the glorious, assertive quality of his statement foreshadows
the fact that Victor’s passion will not be tempered by any consideration
of the possible horrific consequences of his search for knowledge.
Additionally, this declaration furthers the parallel between Walton’s
spatial explorations and Frankenstein’s forays into unknown knowledge, as
both men seek to “pioneer a new way,” to make progress beyond established
limits.

5.

I,
the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at,
and kicked, and trampled on.

In Walton’s final letter to his sister,
he recounts the words that the monster speaks to him over Victor’s
dead body. This eruption of angry self-pity as the monster questions
the injustice of how he has been treated compellingly captures his
inner life, giving Walton and the reader a glimpse into the suffering
that has motivated his crimes. This line also evokes the motif of
abortion: the monster is an unwanted life, a creation abandoned
and shunned by his creator.

The book doesn't specify if the monster was created by one man or several or how he was brought to life. I think we can safely guess that the monster was brought to life using electricity because it has such an influence on Victor. SPOILER ALERT. I would also say that is safe to say that the monster was probably created using more than one man because later on Victor tears apart/destroys the monster's companion before he completes her creation. These are just my thoughts and if anyone has anything else they would like to add please comment